Re: bug in /etc/profile.d/colorls.sh (fileutils-4.0.36-4 and older)

[Bob Proulx]

> colorls.sh sets aliases for ls(1) depending on situation.  It queries
> /etc/DIR_COLORS to determine whether color is set to disabled, but it
> doesn't check that file for whether $TERM is a terminal that supports color
> or not, hence sets inappropriate aliases if COLOR is enabled but TERM does
> not support color.  Shouldn't colorls.sh be changed to be this:
> 
> # diff colorls.sh.orig colorls.sh.new
> 7,8c7
> <   if ! egrep -qi "^COLOR.*none" $COLORS &>/dev/null && \
> <    egrep -qi "^TERM[  ]*$TERM" $COLORS &>/dev/null; then
> ---
> >   if ! egrep -qi "^COLOR.*none" $COLORS &>/dev/null; then

Thank you for your report.  But colorls.sh is not part of any GNU
package.  It is a Redhat creation that they include in addition to the
GNU fileutils package.  And one that I personally think is implemented
incorrectly.  But every time I submit a bug report to Redhat about it
they close the bug report as "not a bug".  Reference Redhat bug 38370.

Please make a bug report to Redhat about your problem.  But after my
own personal experiences with this particular problem I would not
expect them to do anything about it.

I believe it is undesirable for Redhat to force an alias on all users
that turns on colors regardless of the user's preference for terminal
colors.  I like multiple color terminals.  Which on a Redhat system
will make blue on blue and yellow on yellow, etc., colors which are
unreadable.  I have to realize that I am on a redhat system and
specially unalias their color setting.  Which means I can have the
same profile everywhere except on a Redhat system.  Not nice.

I prefer the Debian method better.  They create a .profile skeleton
such that new users get an alias which may be customized.  This is
much more flexible.  If you use the default configuration you get a
reasonable set of defaults.  If you customize your configuration you
get what you customized.  You don't have to know about things you did
not change and unset them specially.  In my personal opinion Debian
clearly has a superior user model with respect to this issue.

Bob